Isibonelo Colliery is situated in the Mpumalanga Province between the towns of Kinross, Secunda, Bethal and Kriel near the northern margin of the Highveld coalfield of Mpumalanga.

Bituminous coal seams hosted by the sedimentary strata in the Isibonelo Colliery Mining Licence area include, from the base up, the No 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 seams. Only the No 4 seam is presently considered to be economically viable, with an average opencast depth of 40m and a thickness of 5,6m.

Isibonelo Colliery established an opencast mine to supply Sasol’s Synthetic Fuel (SSF) plant located in Secunda.

Mine development began in early 2005 with the excavation of a box cut 100m behind a berm using the truck and shovel method, and a dragline was relocated from the Syferfontein mine. The dragline walkway was originally developed adjacent to the Sasol’s overland conveyor servitude. This dragline walkway was subsequently developed into the service and pit access roads presently still operational. Once the box cut was established a second dragline was incorporated into the mining operations.

Isibonelo Colliery currently operates three open cast pits, namely the North Pit, Central Pit and South Pit.

The extracted coal is delivered to the primary in-pit sizing plant prior to placement on the overland conveyor and relocation to the IC surge bunker and emergency stockpile area located near IC’s offices and SSF conveyor system. The coal in the said bunker is then handed over to Sasol and transported to the SSF Secunda Complex via Sasol’s overland conveyor.

The crusher plant is located 5 - 8m below ground-level with the overland conveyor exiting to ground-level at a 16 degree angle. The tipping ramp is about 15m above ground level with an additional 1 - 2m housing on top of this concrete structure. The tipping bay is enclosed by the steel housing and a security fence and lighting was installed around the plant.